Posted 3 years ago on May 12, 2013, 12:04 p.m. EST by shoozTroll
(17632)
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A poor, already embattled neighborhood is fighting for justice..

"Manchester, one of Houston’s oldest neighborhoods, is surrounded by industry on all sides: a Rhodia chemical plant; a car crushing facility; a water treatment plant; a train yard for hazardous cargo; a Goodyear synthetic rubber plant; oil refineries belonging to Lyondell Basell, Valero, and Texas Petro-Chemicals; as well as one of the busiest highways in the city. Industrial development continues uninterrupted down the Houston Ship Channel for another 50 miles south to the Gulf of Mexico. The refineries around Houston have been called the “keystone to Keystone” because they’re expected to process 90 percent of tar sands crude from Alberta if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is completed."

President Obama just made a major announcement on climate change, instructing his cabinet and federal agencies to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, increase energy savings through greater efficiency and more rapidly transition to renewable energy.

Climate change is impacting communities today through more extreme weather. If we do not act quickly to significantly reduce the pollution causing climate change our children will face even more intense hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires.

PS - Get the President and all members of government ( state and federal ) to work on ending the export of Oil Gasoline LNG - as this is being done for Fossil Fuel Profits "ALONE" and seriously undermines the efforts to reduce Atmospheric Pollution - we need to reduce drilling and fracking ( as we move to end it completely ) NOT EXPAND.

Beginning Shortly 1:55pm eastern : Obama is making a big announcement on climate change today. And it really is pretty big. By regulating global warming pollution from power plants, cracking down on inefficient appliances, and expanding RENEWABLE energy production on public lands, the President is making real strides towards cutting back missions from the sector that contributes almost half of all the carbon we emit.

But the President is also still pursuing a lot of extreme energy alternatives that will screw up the planet, from drilling in the Arctic, to fracking for gas, to exporting the coal we don't burn to China.

Most frustratingly, the president is NOT taking this opportunity to say No to the Keystone XL pipeline. That's doesn't mean he's planning to say yes, necessarily. But it does mean that he doesn't see Keystone as linked to climate change, or his legacy. He thinks that what he IS announcing is what he'll be remembered for, and that stopping Keystone XL is not his priority.

There's stuff in the president's plan which is undeniably good. And there's a lot more we need him to do—on climate and on other issues—to really be the environmental leader the planet deserves.

So we're inviting you to tune in and watch his speech with us at 1:30 p.m., EST, today and tell us what YOU think. Is Obama's plan good enough that we should support it unequivocally (though of course we'll keep pressing him on Keystone and other issues)? Or does Obama need to say no to carbon bombs like KXL, Arctic Drilling and Fracked gas for this plan to be anything more than window dressing. Click on the link of your choice to vote and be taken to a page where you can watch the speech live with us and discuss it as it happens.

VOTE

No Deal: The climate is too important for half-measures and Obama needs to say no to carbon bombs like KXL, Arctic Drilling and Fracked gas for this plan to be anything more than window dressing.

OR

Let's celebrate: Obama's plan is a good start that will end coal-fired electricity our biggest single source of global warming pollution.

WE really want to know what you believe, because with Congress still dominated by tinfoil-hat-wearers who don't even admit climate change is real. How we respond to this climate announcement will shape all our work to save the planet from catastrophic global warming for the next 3 years.

Thanks for being in the climate fight,
Drew Hudson
Environmental Action

The stuff that was in Detroit was supposedly shipped off to somewhere in Ohio, so this crap is over and above that.

There must be an awful lot more of it out there, that we haven't heard about yet. I wonder if it's all stored on the shores of some water course or another?

I can recall from those stories about Detroit, a spokesperson mentioning that it's production cost virtually nothing and the only thing taken away from the PURE PROFIT of it's sales, is the cost of storage and shipping.

I wonder if ALEC has made it impossible for a class action suit against it's pollution yet?

1) Yep - everywhere you have a refinery you have coke to store and ship.

2) Everywhere possible for barge transport and near rail road tracks where they have to ( that might be reversed - trains going everywhere but barges carrying higher volume per barge? ) - destined to ship over seas to the markets.

3) Yep the only cost is storage and shipping - only shipping if they own the land it is stored on. As the crap is made in processing for the oil anyhow.

4) You know that that is the aim = Corp(se)oRATions doing whatever they want - however they want to do it.

This is big news. Two of Mark Zuckerberg's co-founders have resigned from the Facebook founder's controversial new political lobby FWD.us.1

This is a direct result of a campaign by CREDO and our allies to stop Zuckerberg's group from praising conservative politicians for backing the Keystone XL pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a dangerously misguided attempt to win support for immigration reform.

It's time for other tech industry luminaries to make it clear where they stand. In addition to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, eBay’s John Donahoe, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr are co-founders of the group.

Elon Musk, the founder of electric carmaker Tesla, explained his departure saying “I agreed to support Fwd.us because there is a genuine need to reform immigration. However, this should not be done at the expense of other important causes."2 The other Silicon Valley star that joined Musk in protesting the group's attack on key environmental priorities was David Sacks, the founder of Yammer.

These technology leaders can't have it both ways. They can't be for clean energy and action on climate change and fund conservative propaganda that promotes the Keystone XL pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Silicon Valley stars like LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, eBay’s John Donahoe, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr and even Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg are sensitive to public backlash from the people who power their social networks or use their products or services. If enough of us push back and keep this issue in the public eye, they will be under immense pressure, not just from us but from their staff and shareholders, to stop supporting FWD.us.

The campaign against FWD.us, which includes efforts not just by CREDO but also our allies at Progressives United, 350.org, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters and other groups, has been covered extensively in the technology and political press with stories in the Washington Post, New York Times, San Jose Mercury News, Huffington Post and dozens of other outlets. Elon Musk's high profile departure from the group gives us new momentum to escalate our campaign and send a message to Silicon Valley political donors that if they throw Keystone XL under the bus, that we will hold them accountable.

Please sign our petition and then share it with friends and family. We will deliver these signatures directly to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, eBay’s John Donahoe, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr. These tech leaders are not used to hearing directly from the public and in such large numbers. Your signature can make a real difference in this campaign.